Teffi - Skazochka - a leshii in a French forest

[Robert Chandler]

Dear Natalie,

This is very interesting indeed.

Teffi's own favourite among her many collections of short stories was VED'MA
(1936), and each story in this book is devoted to a particular folkore
creature: the ruskalka, the leshii, the domovoi...   Her interest in
folklore was very deep indeed, and you certainly do not need to worry about
'imposing folklore concepts on literature'!

THANK YOU!

R.




> Dear Robert and others,
> 
> At the risk of imposing folklore concepts on literature ...
> 
> Eye contact is a way of allowing the other to gain access to the self.
>   So - looking on something that you should not look at, or at a being
> from the other world, gives that being or that something access to
> you.  Gogol used this concept in Vii.  When Khoma Brut looks at Vii,
> and only then, does the being gain the ability to attack him.  This
> looking and not looking appears in a number of legends, including a
> story about devils called the all-seeing eye.
> 
> Laughter can be a form of attack of the supernatural upon the human.
> This is what rusalki supposedly do to people, esp. men.  That is, they
> make them laugh to the point that they drown.  Of course a human whose
> has died a premature and thus unnatural death must join the world of
> the spirits.
> 
> In the case here, it is Grisha looking at - or trying not to look at -
> the leshii.  And he is threatened with laughter.  Should he succumb,
> he would be in mortal danger.  This laughter is not hysteria.  But it
> is dangerous.
> 
> Natalie K.
> 
> Quoting "Robert Chandler" <kcf19 at DIAL.PIPEX.COM>:
> 
>> Dear all,
>> 
>> This is a story from the early 1920s. Grisha, a Russian émigré boy, has got
>> lost in a French forest.  He goes to sleep, then encounters what seems to be
>> a leshii.
>> 
>> ??????????? ????? - ????????? ?????.
>>     ???????? ????? ? ?????????.  [...]  ?????? ???? ???? ????? ???????
>> ??????, ???? ???????.  ??????? ?? ????? ? ??? ???? ?? ????? ?????? ????
>> ??????.  ?????? ??????????, ?? ???? ?????? ?????? ????????.  ? ????? ??? ?
>> ????? ? ?????????? ? ???? ?????????.
>>     ? ?????????, ?? ????? ? ????? ????, ????? ?????? ? ????? ?????????
>> ??????? ???????.
>> 
>> I am totally confused by this sentence: ?Videt? nevozmozhno, do togo samomu
>> smeshno delaetsya.?  WHO can?t see WHAT?  Does the ?samomu? refer to Grisha
>> or to the leshii?  I imagine it refers to Grisha.  If so, how should I
>> understand the next sentence?  Are the tickling in Grisha?s throat and his
>> twitching legs intended as indications of him getting into a hysterical
>> state?
>> 
>> Also: the leshii?s hair is sticking up from his forehead, yes?  In two
>> tufts?
>> 
>> Thanks, as always!
>> 
>> R.
>> 
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>  Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
>>   options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
>>                     http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> 
>> 
> 
> 
> 
> Natalie Kononenko
> Kule Chair of Ukrainian Ethnography
> Editor, Folklorica
> University of Alberta
> Modern Languages and Cultural Studies
> 200 Arts Building
> Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2E6
> Phone: 780-492-6810
> Web: http://www.arts.ualberta.ca/uvp/
> 
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
>  Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
>   options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
>                     http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
  options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
                    http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------